SillyDog701

[Antony]

Another exciting news for New Orleans. New Orleans opens today for residents, but warns the return is "at your own risk."

New Orleans open 'at your own risk' (News.com.au)
NEW Orleans today opened the gates to residents who fled two hurricanes in four weeks but they were warned the return is "at your own risk".

While Mayor Ray Nagin sees this as a new chance to revive the city, he acknowledged there are only limited medical facilities, petrol supplies and open stores.
Cars streamed back to the Algiers district, which was the first to reopen again, following the second compulsory evacuation before Hurricane Rita at the weekend. But engineers are still pumping out water from the Lower Ninth Ward, which was flooded by Hurricane Katrina on August 29 and Rita.

Mr Nagin also allowed business owners back in the downtown area, including the famed French Quarter.

But the mayor urged senior citizens and children to stay away and said everyone should consider carefully whether it is safe to return.

...

For full story, please read New Orleans open 'at your own risk' (News.com.au)

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[Antony]

New Orleans pumping almost done (CNN.com):
The Army Corps of Engineers pumped much of the remaining floodwaters out of the city Saturday as tens of thousands of residents continued returning to dry neighborhoods to check on houses and reopen businesses.

Water was still being pumped out of the heavily flooded lower Ninth Ward. Officials expected the pumping to be completed by midweek, said Mitch Frazier, spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers.

...

Electricity had been restored to about 28 percent of New Orleans and about 98 percent of Jefferson Parish, said Amy Stallings, a spokeswoman for Entergy Corp. Electricity is still out in all of nearby St. Bernard Parish, but a destroyed transmission line was being repaired, Stallings said.

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[Antony]

The Army Corps of Engineers said Sunday it expects to declare New Orleans dry by Tuesday or Wednesday. Temporary repairs to the levees that failed in Orleans Parish during Hurricane Rita have been repaired, and pumping continues, said Col. Duane Gapinsky. The next step, he said, will be to focus work on failed levees in the city's rural, outlying areas, such as Plaquemines Parish and St. Bernard Parish.

New Orleans' historic St. Louis Cathedral Sunday held its first Mass since Katrina struck August 29. "Faith and church presence and church life are an integral part of the restoration of this community," said Archbishop Alfred Hughes.
(From CNN.com)

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[Antony]

Edward showed me those two links, I think it would be a good idea to share them with everybody.

Man charged in Katrina Web scam (C|net News.com):

An individual was indicted on fraud charges for collecting money over the internet for humanitarian relief.
...
Kraser is the first person that the United States has charged with Internet fraud linked to Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. Internet security experts have warned of numerous online scams designed to exploit charitable giving in the aftermath of the catastrophe.
...
Kraser collected victims' money through a PayPal account as well as via wire transfers directly to his bank account, according to the indictment.

PayPal, the online payment subsidiary of eBay, was quick to cooperate with the investigation, the U.S. Justice Department said.

American Red Cross Committed to Fighting Fraud (American Red Cross Press Release):

Unfortunately, fraud is a part of life following major disasters, and the relief and recovery efforts for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are no exception. The Red Cross has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to fraud and cooperates with local officials to vigorously pursue all such cases. In fact, the Red Cross has already cooperated with the appropriate authorities regarding 261 such cases of alleged fraud.

SillyDog701 would also like to urge everybody who wish to donate, please donate your hard-earned money directly to the registered and recognised charities, and making sure those who needed the most get the support. Donation is not gambling. There are people who really need the help, not the scammers.

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[JayGarcia]

What got Mr Kraser in trouble was not the fact that donations were made to his PayPal or personal bank account but the fact that he couldn't show OR prove that he in turn forwarded the collected donations to any charitable organization.

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[Antony]

According to BBC News report, the city of New Orleans is sacking 3,000 workers, about half of its workforce, after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Meanwhile, officials have ended the door-to-door search for victims of the hurricane in the state of Louisiana.

Full story: New Orleans sacks 3,000 workers (BBC News, 5 October 2005)

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[JayGarcia]

officials have ended the door-to-door search for victims of the hurricane in the state of Louisiana.

Residents returning to the Lakeview section of New Orleans on Monday (day before yesterday) and who live in multi-dwelling apartments are reporting that bodies are still being found - BY the RESIDENTS - even though there is a red circle painted on the door indicating that a search has been made and nothing found. These incidents are leading authorities to believe that searches are in fact NOT being done and the red circles are being painted regardless. This may or may not "make the news". Sad ...

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[JayGarcia]

the city of New Orleans is sacking 3,000 workers

There is sooo much work available in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish that these workers will have NO problem finding a job. Case in point - Burger King is offering a $6,000 bonus to anyone willing to sign up for one year of full-time work and $3,000 bonus for part-time workers. You can't travel a single block in the area and not see "We're Hiring" signs, they're everywhere. Evacuated workers are not returning, that's the problem.

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[Ramona]

Residents returning to the Lakeview section of New Orleans on Monday (day before yesterday) and who live in multi-dwelling apartments are reporting that bodies are still being found - BY the RESIDENTS - even though there is a red circle painted on the door indicating that a search has been made and nothing found. These incidents are leading authorities to believe that searches are in fact NOT being done and the red circles are being painted regardless. This may or may not "make the news". Sad ...

That is certainly upsetting, and more, totally unacceptable. Whatever organization was responsible for making those searches should be harshly disciplined. I hope that does make the news, as one more miserable foul up of the entire Hurricane Katrina relief effort... Just imagine if the body just being found was the resident's Mother, child, etc.

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[Lorraine]

Residents returning to the Lakeview section of New Orleans on Monday (day before yesterday) and who live in multi-dwelling apartments are reporting that bodies are still being found - BY the RESIDENTS - even though there is a red circle painted on the door indicating that a search has been made and nothing found. These incidents are leading authorities to believe that searches are in fact NOT being done and the red circles are being painted regardless. This may or may not "make the news". Sad ...

That is certainly upsetting, and more, totally unacceptable. Whatever organization was responsible for making those searches should be harshly disciplined. I hope that does make the news, as one more miserable foul up of the entire Hurricane Katrina relief effort... Just imagine if the body just being found was the resident's Mother, child, etc.

Yes, it certainly should be investigated. I just can't imagine returning and finding bodies still floating around perhaps of loved ones. Seems to me that it would be whomever is in charge, whether it be Fema, Municipal, State or Federal authority, or anyone else that said it would be alright to return, should be locked up for a long time.

It's disgusting the way this tragedy was allowed to happen in the first place, granted Mother Nature is hard to stop, but the levee's should have been built higher, but like all contracts given out by goverment, they skimp and scrape and do inferior work.

The people that lived in Louisiana have paid with their lives, and the ones that survived will be paying in taxes for many years.

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[Antony]

the city of New Orleans is sacking 3,000 workers

There is sooo much work available in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish that these workers will have NO problem finding a job. Case in point - Burger King is offering a $6,000 bonus to anyone willing to sign up for one year of full-time work and $3,000 bonus for part-time workers. You can't travel a single block in the area and not see "We're Hiring" signs, they're everywhere. Evacuated workers are not returning, that's the problem.

So it was the City that can't afford paying staffs?
Was that because the City of New Orleans did not charge enough rate and any other fees? Or people did not pay their parking fines, littering fines (etc)?
Or the City did not set up enough parking metres? If the City does not have rubbish collecting fee, it might be a good idea to introduce it.

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[Lorraine]

Jay Garcia wrote:

the city of New Orleans is sacking 3,000 workers

Antony wrote:

So it was the City that can't afford paying staffs?
Was that because the City of New Orleans did not charge enough rate and any other fees? Or people did not pay their parking fines, littering fines (etc)?
Or the City did not set up enough parking metres? If the City does not have rubbish collecting fee, it might be a good idea to introduce it

I don't think it is up to the city to hire people for Burger King or any other privately owned business.

Antony,do you really think that the city would have the time or the money to find the people who didn't pay their parking fines, littering fines (etc)? Garbage tax doesn't give municipalities enough money to bother about now that there is so much debris around LA.
Why did all the countries send Foreign aid? People the world over, gave money to help the people of the Katrina tragedy? Where did it go?




Jay Garcia;
Why the City would be sacking employees is beyond my comprehension.

However, the City probably doesn't have the money to keep the workers, as most of the people that do menial work probably all drowned, or have lost so many of their families that, who can blame them for not wanting to return to work? I can't imagine the horror of the tragedy and expect people to return to work without a roof over their heads to call their own.
Transportation is perhaps another problem.

There is definitely something wrong somewhere.
All the rubble should have been removed immediately when all the water was removed.
Bodies should have been put in refrigeration or whatever they do with dead bodies, during a flood, or any tragedy of such immense proportion. Personnel should be hired~~ not fired; and have buses pick up employees.


Money should have been spent to fix the levees by the military while they were there. They have some fine engineers. It's no use to try to rebuild N.O. when those sandbags are all that is holding the gulf waters from flooding the city and surrounding area again.

As usual, money is filling someone's pockets and not the needy or the people it should be helping.

All the politicians didn't take long to get there for their photo ops. But it seems to be taking a long time for the equipment necessary to clean up and get organized.

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[Antony]

Big Easy still has Big Problem

A retired elementary teacher (black) who was repeatedly punched in the head by police in an incident caught on videotape said Monday he was not drunk, put up no resistance and was baffled by what happened.
...
A federal civil rights investigation was begun in the case. Davis is black; the three city police officers seen on the tape are white.
...
Police Superintendent Warren Riley said any misconduct would be dealt with swiftly. He noted the video showed "a portion of that incident."

"The actions that were observed on this video are certainly unacceptable by this department," Riley said.
...
Mayor Ray Nagin said, "I don't know what the gentleman did, but whatever he did, he didn't deserve what I saw on tape."
(News taken from Netscape News with CNN)

(view news video, Netscape Video BETA)

If you happened to be born black, too bad, you have a big chance of getting beaten up by white policemen, and being beaten up was justified according to white policemen.

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[Lorraine]

Antony wrote:

If you happened to be born black, too bad, you have a big chance of getting beaten up by white policemen, and being beaten up was justified according to white policemen.

yes, I saw it on the news.
That man was pounced on for whatever reason, I have no idea. The man was said to be a former alcoholic and didn't hadn't had a drink in twenty years. Who knows?
The man looked like he was nearly murdered by all the blood on the sidewalk. It was disgusting and very sad.

Perhaps it was a racial thing, who knows, of course when a person is black and the arresting officers,[in this case goons] beat him up, it looks like it is a racial problem.

Just remember, these policemen have been working under a pretty bad situation and probably, like anyone else, for instance the black man, and it erupted at the same time..i.e: stress, frustration, no home, lost family perhaps, lost everything, besides working very long hours to replace the cops that deserted New Orleans, and the enormousness of the tragedy.

I think we should wait to hear the whole story.
-Lorraine

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[JayGarcia]

So it was the City that can't afford paying staffs?

The 'City of New Orleans" has no taxable base at the moment, no businesses returning yet to produce the much needed revenue to pay it's non-essential staff. As far as "fines" and such, that's a standing issue for decades, nobody pays fines, it's "standard practice". Even when the City cracks down, they still don't pay their fines and the City doesn't care to enforce it. The City AND the State is nothing more than a cesspool of corruption. It's a situation of "who you know". This is a really good time for corrective actions to be taken in local and state government, start "fresh" so to speak. Now if we can just keep the "carpet baggers" from the Norht out, then we may have a good chance at revitalization but no thanks to the present governor Kathleen Blanco who just pulled support for Nagin's Casino proposal, which IMHO, was terrific idea to jumpstart the economy again.

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